Shift in Aid Delivery

“In an effort to get more value from taxpayers’ dollars, the [New Zealand] government wants better co-ordination between development agencies in the Pacific,” Johnny Blades writes for the Guardian. “The type of aid approach emerging provides for expansion of the established regional role of New Zealand in peacekeeping missions such as those to the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste, to encompass humanitarian assistance and the challenges of disaster relief. An example of this shift in aid delivery, Tropic Twilight 21, a joint operation by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and the country’s foreign aid programme. The two-week exercise had two major aims: to practice a response to a natural disaster such as a cyclone or tsunami in low-lying islands, and to deliver a series of aid programmes to Tuvalu.”